Sometimes its a joy to do a painting based on something random and not of your control. That's why I like pick-a-mixing (or what I've began to called "Splice"). Its basically a pile of characters/races and a theme that I pick randomly from. For example I pick two from the Character/Races and I got "Superheroes" and "Pokemon (Legendaries)" with the theme of "General (as in a leader of an army)". Doing work like this is a nice way to challenge the brain to think of how to combine all these unrelated -and often strange- combinations.
With the Pokemon Legendaries I could have chosen up to three figures (I don't think there has ever been a set higher than that number). I created a list of superheroes, giving each a number, and using a random number generator got the results of Spawn, Green Arrow and Batman. I also picked a random animal from DK's The Natural History Book (again, using a number generator for a page number) to base my designs from. I got the Fly family. I must admit I liked the idea of bug-type legendaries, in the game series they seem to get a pretty raw deal as being the weakest types.
With the Pokemon Legendaries I could have chosen up to three figures (I don't think there has ever been a set higher than that number). I created a list of superheroes, giving each a number, and using a random number generator got the results of Spawn, Green Arrow and Batman. I also picked a random animal from DK's The Natural History Book (again, using a number generator for a page number) to base my designs from. I got the Fly family. I must admit I liked the idea of bug-type legendaries, in the game series they seem to get a pretty raw deal as being the weakest types.
One thing that is evident in Pokemon designs is that they have strong silhouette and should be recognisable just from the outline. I had to keep this in mind when I was designing these trio, trying to make sure their outlines are distinctive. This was also the moment when I suspected the Green Arrow (or Gnarrow as I was calling it) was not working well. In the end I removed him, he seemed out of place with the two darker bugs. With two it was easier to also come up with a backstory that Legendaries in the Pokemon series seem to have.
"Two rival Bug Generals, each homed on two of the Cimex Islands, fight for the control of the middle island and its rich food source. The swarms of these two power pokemon have consumed all the natural resources on their native lands and must migrate." Actually, Gnarrow could have been used as an unfortunate creature caught in the middle of a crossfire and defending its island from both swarms... I'll think about it some more.
"Two rival Bug Generals, each homed on two of the Cimex Islands, fight for the control of the middle island and its rich food source. The swarms of these two power pokemon have consumed all the natural resources on their native lands and must migrate." Actually, Gnarrow could have been used as an unfortunate creature caught in the middle of a crossfire and defending its island from both swarms... I'll think about it some more.
The line art didn't take very long. I wanted a rough look to it anyway, so it looks a little more like traditional ink rather than sterile smooth lines. I only used the line tool when there was a big curve that I couldn't do in one stroke, like on the wings, in which case I used the eraser to bite out the smoothness.
There was something about the Gnarrow drawing that I didn't like, so I drew it completly again, tweeking the design. I made the waist more slender, wings bigger and changed the 'sting'. The legs were also making it more cluttered so I removed them completly. There is a bit more movement in this design which makes it a tad more interesting than the previous version.
